Palm Pre

Hot on the heels of Palm's Movistar GSM Pre sighting comes confirmation from carrier O2 that they'll be offering the smartphone "in time for the Christmas holidays". The handset will go on sale in the UK, Ireland and Germany on O2, with Spanish buyers getting the GSM Pre on Movistar. As expected, the only hardware change has been switching to support HSDPA/UMTS.

The GSM Palm Pre has made its first official appearance, on the company's Spanish site. Unveiled as an exclusive to carrier Movistar, the Spanish network owned by Telefonica, the announcement lends further weight to the rumors that O2 - also a Telefonica carrier - will make some GSM Pre announcement this week.

Itchy trigger-finger or wishful thinking: either way, it's interesting to see that the Palm Pre has shown up on Dutch carrier Hi's website. A new support page isn't necessarily big news, but given that Hi is a VMNO brand of KPN and they, in turn, are strongly associated with Telefonica, it makes sense given that O2 (owned by Telefonica - are you confused yet?) is a strong frontrunner for Pre exclusivity.

We're due to sit down with Palm UK next week and - hopefully - find out all the details about the GSM Pre's launch, but according to The Guardian news of the smartphone's official UK carrier is already ready for prime-time. The paper has reported that carrier O2 have clinched Pre exclusivity, adding the new smartphone to a line-up that already includes the Apple iPhone 3GS.

Palm will announce the UK carrier with exclusivity for their GSM Pre next week, according to the latest news from the company. The launch will also included a release date and pricing details for the handset, making the UK the first region to see the Pre outside of the US.

A GSM Palm Pre has been spotted in the wilds of Vietnam, presumably because that's where the company has outsourced manufacture of the device. The handset shows the same SIM layout as the pre-production model we caught sight of back in February.

Palm have announced their Q4 and full-year 2009 financial results [pdf link], covering the period up to the end of May 29th. Palm chairman and CEO Jon Rubinstein revealed full-year revenues of $735.9m and gross profit of $159.8m; he went on to describe the launch of the Palm Pre and webOS shortly after the period finished as when the company "officially reentered the race". That's good news, because while smartphone shipments in Q4 rose 6-percent from Q3, year-over-year decline for the quarter was a huge 62-percent.

Palm have notched up one-million downloads from their App Catalog just eighteen days into the public availability of the Pre. The figures, which have been collated by analyst Medialets rather than from Palm themselves, suggest that the estimated 150,000 Pre users have each downloaded 6-7 apps each.

Developers playing with Palm's webOS have discovered a method whereby software can be installed on an unhacked Pre. The system emails a .ipk link to the app, and seemingly takes advantage of a loophole in the platform to bypass Palm's security.

Say what you like about the Pre, Palm aren't holding back when it comes to positioning their new smartphone in the best possible way. After Apple released a support note warning non-iPod users (e.g. Palm Pre owners) that their ability to sync with iTunes could be broken with future software updates, Palm have described such an action as "a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience."